Czech Connect Closes

In the past week small Ostrava-headquartered carrier Czech Connect Airlines suspended all operations and filed for bankruptcy after one of the company’s main investors pulled out of the business. The Czech Republic operator was only established last year and had focused on offering scheduled air links into Russia and charter services to support local tour operators.

In the past year the carrier handled just over 100,000 passengers on its fleet of two Boeing 737s – one -300 and one -400 – with around 40 per cent of these travelling on its scheduled network. The airline had developed a small niche in the European market and this month had planned to offer flights from Brno Tuřany to Moscow Domodedovo and St Petersburg Pulkovo International; from Karlovy Vary to Ekaterinburg and from Pardubice to Moscow Domodedovo.

The market for travel between Czech Republic and Russia is growing and growing fast. In the past year an estimated 842,000 O&D passengers travelled between the two countries, up 36.4 per cent on the previous 12 months and up 126.4 per cent across the past five years. There are currently over 100 flights per week between the two countries providing almost 15,000 seats in each direction.

The two national carriers, Czech Airlines and Aeroflot Russian Airlines dominate with 43.7 per cent and 29.5 per cent shares of the available capacity but a further eight operators provide links. The majority of these (79.9 per cent) originate from Ruzyně International Airport in the Czech capital, Prague.

Czech Connect had attempted to develop air links away from the capital and offer links into Russia from some of the country’s regional airports. However, it has faced competition on three of the four routes it was scheduled to fly this year with UTair also serving the Brno – Moscow market (albeit serving Vnukovo Airport in the Russian capital), Ural Airlines providing a weekly rotation between Karlovy Vary and Ekaterinburg and Transaero Airlines linking Pardubice to Moscow.